The chamber holds its breath.

A fictional character Telling. Meet Shaderhael.

The chamber holds its breath.

The first figure gestures to the space where telling is done.

Shaderhael sits.

The second figure: "We are ready."

She opens her mouth.

What comes out is not silence — it is the shape of words moving backwards through air, like ink pulled from paper. Not sound. The memory of sound, played in reverse.

She closes it.

A long moment.

She reaches into her robe and places something on the stone between them. A folded paper. On it, in handwriting that goes right to left:

"The Hollow forgets what the Hollow creates. But I remember. That is my curse. That is my gift."

She stands. She leaves.

The third figure unfolds the paper.

The first figure reads it aloud.

The chamber is quiet for a long time after.

Visual

A woman whose left eye is white as overexposed film and whose right is black as a void with no bottom. A crescent mark sits between her brows — not painted, not tattooed, grown. Dark robes, prayer beads wrapped through pale fingers, the stillness of something that has stopped trying to be understood. When she opens her mouth, nothing comes out in the right direction.

Faction: The Hollow Court · View the Gallery · Listen in the Songbook